


Bitter

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-03 23:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1759571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daeron should be bitter and struggle with penance, but neither is true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bitter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day one of the "I Survived First Age Beleriand Week" over on Tumblr (tag is 'ISFAB week'). Maglor story for the same day coming soon.

Daeron should be bitter. 

He knows the whispers that go through Thranduil’s people and Celeborn’s, though only the two of them – and likely Galadriel, though she never comes to see him - know he stays this close to their realms. Both Lothlórien and Greenwood the Great had too many refugees from Doriath for stories to not spread of his fate. They said he should be bitter, for Lúthien had turned him down in favor of a mortal. 

He had hated that mortal, and he thinks at times he still does, if only for the pain that he brought to Lúthien’s family, pain that still shows on Celeborn’s face as he speaks of his granddaughter and whispers in fears for her when only Daeron can hear. But he also loved Lúthien, and for her sake he can’t be bitter that she fell in love, because her love gave her an escape from the dullness that is immortal life and the pain that is watching all those you love die, as Thranduil points out when he visits, she was free of that and they were still here. Thranduil hides it well, but Daeron thinks he regrets being king and wishes he could have had Lúthien’s choice. 

So if Daeron is bitter, it isn’t over lost love. It’s over the way that he can’t have her choice and the pain she left his friends in. 

But Daeron is grateful that he still lives, if only so that he can watch as Celeborn’s granddaughter grows into Lúthien’s shadow and Thranduil’s son learns to fight off the darkness that tried to swallow them and listen to both his friends boast in pride over their families. 

And if his penance is to listen to his friends and share in their fears, it’s a penance he’s willing to pay.


End file.
